Category Archives: Data Management

This event focussed on Metadata Discovery and Formats and Preservation, a round table comprised of both researchers and data managers/librarians started looking at developing some best practice around the organisation, storage and accessibility of arts data.

At this roundtable we worked more as a working group and therefore will be limited the number of places available in order to have a manageable group to generate some best practice ideas which were then circulated for further discussion. We invited researchers (particularly practice based) to feed in on how they document their processes.

Attendees:

Ximena Alarcon: UAL Researcher

Neil Cummings: UAL Researcher

Marie-Therese Gramstadt: UAL Special Collections

Andrew Gray: Goldsmiths Repository Manager

Laurence Horton: LSE Data Librarian

Amanda Kipling: Goldsmiths Researcher

Anna Lawson: UWE Research Repository librarian

Stephanie Meece: UAL Scholarly Publications Manager

Claire Mokrauer-Madden: CCW Graduate School Administrator

Pratap Rughani: UAL Researcher

Sarah Sparke: UWE Researcher

Athanasios Velios: UAL Researcher

Betty Woessner: UAL Research Data Manager

Alex Kohn: UAL Assistant Librarian

Rachel Jillions: UAL Communications

The meeting was opened by Thanasis Velios who discussed and gave rationale for the promotion and use of Open Formats. A recording of this is available here and a transcript will soon be posted.

We then broke up into groups comprised of a balanced mix of researchers and administrators/librarians to look at file formatting for preservation of Text/Images, Sound, and Film/Video. Most of the discussions centred around how the researchers worked with their materials and the formats used.

Images/Text Group

Researchers used the formats available to them which largely came from proprietary packages such as Microsoft Word.

For archiving there was a preference for open formats as these were better for long term preservation and would not be reliant on commercial product availability for access in the future.

It was agreed that a good resource detailing open and closed formats should be created which also provided a rationale for the use of open formats.

Sound group

Laurence Horton, who deals mainly with Social Science data said that saving sound files (mainly from Dictaphones) to the repository was difficult as recordings were not really good enough quality so they mainly relied on transcripts

The use of i-phones to record was also discussed and how these files were proprietary and did not operate across platforms.

Recommended format references could also be found on Jisc at directgov.uk

Film/Video group

Pratap Rughani discussed his technical processes for documentary films and has forwarded the following recommendations with regards to professional quality equipment output:

If you have been working on the EX cameras in the native codec you must convert to ProRes422HQ. 1080p. This is also applicable for DaVinci grading. Timebase 25fps. All QT files will be backed up for show reel and to archive. When grading your film make sure it is broadcast safe. The maximum audio peak level is -6dB. Average volume -12dB. We can produce a Blu-ray and Digital Cinema Package (DCP) so you have good quality versions for future exhibition.

The file formats of the raw data are dependent on the editing programmes used.

There is degradation in versioning of digital files therefore recommended to always keep a master copy

In terms of data selection, there are programmes which can annotate digital video files or pull clips and annotate which could subsequently be archived.

While the aim was to reach some recommendations around usable formats for data management, it was felt that more investigation and validation by technical experts was needed before anything definitive could be proposed.

We will therefore continue this theme into our next meetings.

Metadata Discovery

Ximena Alarcon Diaz presented her project Sounding Underground and how it was being transferred to the British Library Sound Archives followed by some discussion as to how people are labelling and identifying their data. Most people in the group used file naming and folder structures as the means of organising their work so some development could be done as to how this method could be used when sharing data as well.

As a result of the recommendations we will for next meeting:

create a resource list detailing open and closed formats and the different types of open documents along with definitions for the many different file extensions. This could be compiled from already existing resources.

“It never occurred to me that that data would actually be a source of material we would want to refer to over and over again…There should have been some thought about how you actually got that material, how you organize that material and how you make it accessible”.

Establishing a cross university Community of Practice around the developing area of Research Data Management (RDM). This follows on from the adoption and implementation of the UAL Research Data Management Policy:

and the development of a support infrastructure, training provision, and research data repository due to come on stream in September 2013.

UAL is currently the leader in the visual arts field in Research Data Management and is the first art and design institution to implement an RDM policy in the UK.The infrastructure for RDM requires the expertise and input from many university staff – legal and enterprise, RMA, library, IT, research and teaching staff, and external stakeholders. These staff are spread across the university and colleges and may not even be aware of their importance in developing RDM. So, this community of practice proposes to bring this diverse group together and lead the change.

The community provides a forum for advocacy and to discuss issues arising from the implementation of the Research Data Management Policy. It explores the potential uses of UAL’s research data within the University and its courses and promotes the university’s approach externally as an open access repository. It will helps to identify and address the training needs of specific stakeholders.

Lead in this project: Betty Woessner of UAL RMA, b.woessner@arts.ac.uk 0207 514 7690